is 



? LIBRARY OF C 



[SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT.] 

3& Lm 'c 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



CHRISTIAN EXAMINER 



Art. L — CONTEMPLATIONS OF GOD IN THE KOSMOS. 

The special training through which every man passes, 
in preparation for the pursuit of that object, whatever it 
may be, which he has chosen as his aim in life, has more 
or less influence upon his appreciation of all general con- 
siderations and arguments. Notwithstanding the com- 
mon foundation of all human intelligence, this diversity 
in the education of men must lead to such a different 
development of faculties which are in themselves essen- 
tially the same, that it may be said of almost any argu- 
ment, that, while the train of evidence which it involves 
will be easily followed by some, it will be quite enigmat- 
ical to others. The widely different points of view from 
which men look on all important questions give rise to a 
general difficulty in introducing new arguments to bear 
upon subjects which have already been discussed, and 
often rentier it almost impossible to give them their true 
force and significance, or to make them tell, in their full 
meaning, what they naturally imply. This difficulty is 
particularly felt, when introducing evidence from the 
study of natural phenomena to elucidate questions of 
pfa ophy and natural theology. For the habit of dis- 
cussing those subjects chiefly upon metaphysical grounds 
has prepared many to receive with indifference additional 

VOL. L. 4TH S. VOL. XV. NO. I. 1 



AND 



RELIGIOUS MISCELLANY. 



JANUARY, 1851. 




mm 



2 Contemplations of God in the Kosmos.' [Jan. 

evidence from physical sciences. This may be our apol- 
ogy for offering some considerations respecting the char- 
acter of God, derived from the study of nature, and may, 
at the same time, explain the reluctance generally felt 
to such discussions. We trust, however, the time is 
not distant, when it will be universally understood that, 
to use the language of an eminent investigator in this 
field, " the battle of the evidences will have to be 
fought on the field of physical science and not on that of 
metaphysics " ; and that the day may yet return when 
the study of metaphysical and physical science will be, 
as it was of old, more closely connected than it is at 
present. 

Geology has shed so much light upon several points 
which were considered as the proper subjects of meta- 
physical inquiry, that the connection already acknowl- 
edged between these departments of learning will grad- 
ually become more intimate. The discussion respecting 
the origin of finite beings, so far, at least, as the decision 
of the fact that they have had a beginning, may be now 
considered at an end. x For geology furnishes evidence, 
as ample as there can be upon any question, proving 
that all organized beings have been created at particular 
times, and have not, according to the theory of the athe- 
ist, an eternal, self-sustaining existence^ There is even 
evidence that their appearance upon the stage of the 
world has not been simultaneous, but that there has been 
a regular succession in the introduction of physical and 
organic phenomena, ranging over an immense lapse of 
time. And it is to be hoped that astronomical investiga- 
tions will finally settle, in an experimental way, the ques- 
tion of the age of matter. This question is the more im- 
portant, as, from evidence derived from the study of our 
globe, there is no such thing to be found as matter 
proper, simple matter, capable of being transformed into 
particular bodies, but only material substances, each of 
which is endowed with specific properties, capable of com- 
binations in determined proportions, and not liable to be 
transformed the one into the other, — thus presenting 
everywhere the character of specific finite existences, — 
that is, partaking of the general attributes which we rec- 
ognize in created beings. 

Before entering, however, into the investigation of the 



i«5i.] 



Development or Ch'eation. 



3 



question of creation, of the relations between the Creator 
and his works, it wiJl not be out of place to mention the 
views of those who ascribe all the diversity which exists 
on earth to the action of laws established at its begin- 
ning. The argument generally introduced against this 
idea of a natural development is chiefly derived from the 
wonderful complications which organized beings espe- 
cially evince, and from their perfect adaptation to the 
circumstances under which they live, indicating design. 
But though powerful in itself, this argument is not con- 
clusive, inasmuch as laws maybe conceived as involving 
a successive evolution. It seems to us, however, that in 
the character of organized beings themselves, in the repe- 
tition of the same combinations under different forms, 
living side by side, we have intrinsic evidence that their | 
various kinds have each been the object of a special' crea- 
tive act, although we acknowledge that this evidence is 
of a kind to strike the naturalist more forcibly than the 
philosopher. The investigations which anatomists have 
been making within the last forty years, in order to ascer- 
tain the identity of structure in the different types of the 
animal kingdom belonging to the same natural divisions, 
have a direct reference to this question. To determine 
the homology of apparently different organs, to recognize 
the correspondence of diversely modified parts of the 
same system of organs, is in reality to trace the various 
forms of expression of the same thoughts. 

Various kinds of corals growing promiscuously upon 
the same reef, presenting with permanent and unchanging 
specilie differences an identical plan of structure, — jelly- 
fishes swimming over them in the same waters, agreeing 
with each other in structure, but differing in specific char- 
acters, — sea-urchins and star-fishes, crawling about upon 
the same corals, and presenting the most minute homol- 
ogy in all their parts, — are facts which cannot be ac- 
counted for by the supposition that laws regulating the 
phenomena of the physical world had of themselves pro- 
duced such combinations, in which an attentive observer 
must recognize though tfuln ess, premeditation, special con- 
ceptions, combined according to one common, fundamen- 
tal plan. For all the animals above mentioned have 
com in on characters. They are radiated in their structure ; 
but this idea of Radiation is expressed in them in various 



4 



Contemplations of God in the Kosmos. [Jan. 



ways, and in each class under a particular form. The 
special modification of the idea of Radiation which char- 
acterizes star-fishes and sea-urchins is totally . different 
from that which distinguishes either jelly-fishes or Polypi, 
and the modification of the former class is still further di- 
versified in its different families. So it is also with the 
special manifestation of the plan of Radiation character- 
istic of jelly-fishes. Their different families present pecu- 
liar combinations of the type common to all. And the 
same is true of the Polypi. He must be blind, indeed, 
who cannot read a consistent thought in these complica- 
tions, evidently combined with design, in accordance with 
some intelligent purpose. It is reflection, it is premedi- 
tation ; and we may fairly say, that each specific existence 
among animals is a manifestation of a special thought, 
that each family represents a combination of similar 
thoughts, and that every great division of the animal 
kingdom may be considered as a particular train of reflec- 
tion upon a fundamental idea. Of such fundamental 
principles we recognize four in the animal kingdom, — 
that to which we have already alluded, Radiation, 
that which is expressed in the type of 3Iollusca, that 
which is manifested in the type of Articulata, and that 
which forms the base of the most important among these 
divisions, and to which we ourselves belong, Verte- 
brata. 

The recognition in the animal creation of specific 
thoughts excludes for ever the idea of a natural develop- 
ment from law, and acknowledges a' personal, intelligent 
God. It may be answered, that the establishment of 
such laws would in itself indicate as truly an intelligent 
God. But it seems to us an important distinction, 
whether the originating thought was of a law, from the 
natural action of which an animal should afterward be 
produced without the immediate intervention of the 
Deity, or whether the being itself was the direct act of 
the Creator, for the support of which the law was in- 
tended. And surely the efforts to understand, so far as 
it may be permitted to our human condition, the concep- 
tion in the mind of God previous to the creation, if it 
be made in all reverence of spirit, is not only natural, but 
* right, and a use which we are bound to make of those 
' powers of mind which we have received from him in 
whose image we are made/ 



1851.] Creation the Manifestation of Thought. 



5 



And may it not be said, that the simultaneous occur- 
rence upon the same spot of animals so diversified in 
structure, belonging to such different types of the animal 
kingdom, as those which have been mentioned, and to 
which we may add bivalve shells, univalves, cuttle-fish- 
es, worms, crabs, fishes, and even whales, present the 
strongest objection to the assumption, that physical laws 
may have, in the course of time, called into existence 
any living being? For how, in one sheet of water, under 
influences strictly identical, should the same physical 
laws produce animals so different in structure ? And 
what is true of all these aquatic animals applies with 
equal force to the inhabitants of the solid portion of the 
surface of our globe, — applies equally to the vegetable 
and to the animal kingdom. 

The particular location of animals differing more or 
less in different parts of the world, under influences al- 
most, if not strictly, the same, is another indication that 
direct thought, and not simply law, is at the foundation 
of all creation. 

We might trace these views with reference to the in- 
ternal structure of all the natural groups in the animal 
kingdom, and show that in every system of organs in 
each type, in every special family, in all the individual 
species, distinct thoughts are evinced ; that these thoughts 
are consistently connected, and have reference to the gen- 
eral relations in which animals stand to each other and 
to the surrounding world. 

It may be shown that there is a gradation in then! 
structure, and that this gradation constitutes the founda- 
tion of all natural classification of organized beings. The 
relations between structure and form might be further 
considered, and their mutual dependence be illustrated as 
so many points excluding the idea that they result from 
the simple action of law. We might trace the growth of 
every individual that lives, and be more deeply impressed 
with the ideal connection existing between them. For 
here, within the limits of their respective natural groups, 
the germs of all animals in their gradual development 
present the same succession, — in other words, the same 
successive thoughts, — which may be read in the com- 
parison of full-grown animals of all degrees of organiza- 



6 Contemplations of God in the Kosmos. [Jan. 



tion * Such manifold combinations repeated in various 
directions, which in themselves have no necessary rela- 
tion, can only be ascribed to an intelligent plan, framed 
upon due consideration by the Omnipotent Intelligence. 
We are thus irresistibly led by the study of organized be- 
ings to acknowledge the existence of a free, personal God. 

However satisfactory these results may be in them- 
selves, they do not, however, contain the full expression of 
the teachings of natural phenomena. Geology shows 
that creation has not been an act limited to any particu- 
lar period, that this world has not been made at one time, 
— that our globe in particular has not been inhabited by 
those animals and plants only which now exist upon its 
surface, but that many distinct periods, each character- 
ized by particular forms of organized life, have preceded 
the creation of those beings which are found with man 
now upon the earth. Geology shows that these periods 
have extended through ages, and that the organized be- 
ings which have existed during each are all different 
from those which belong to our day, so that we recognize 
a series of independent creations, which have followed 
each other in a definite succession. 

The researches into the character of the remains of 
those extinct forms of animal and vegetable life, upon 
which such extensive investigations have been made, fur- 
thermore show that there is an intimate connection be- 
tween them all from the beginning to the end ; but a 
connection which is not that of successive generation, 
one from another, but an intelligent connection in the 
thoughts of the Creator, similar to that which exists 
among living animals in the plan of their structure and 
in their natural affinities. The animals and plants of the 
different periods are no more produced from one another, 
than the different types of animals and plants now exist- 
ing upon earth. 

But what is wonderfully surprising and very signifi- 

* In the sentences above, allusion is made to the general results bearing 
upon the questions under examination which have been derived from zool- 
ogy, comparative anatomy, physiology, paleontology, and embryology, and 
of which extensive abstracts might have been given to substantiate more 
fully the conclusions presented here. We have, however, avoided care- 
fully all technicalities borrowed from physical sciences, in order to con- 
dense the argument, and would refer for the matter-of fact evidence to the 
original sources of information respecting the natural phenomena alluded 
to above. 



1851.] 



God meditating 1 the Creation. 



7 



cant is the fact, that, in their order of succession in geo- 
lo{ 1 times, they agree with the gradation of struc- 
ture exhibited among living animals, and also with the 
changes in embryonic growth which animals of the same 
types undergo at present. Now such facts have an im- 
portant meaning, in connection with the view expressed 
above respecting the creation of the animals of the pres- 
ent day. If it is true that they must be considered as ex- 
pressions of specific thoughts, so truly do the fossils teach 
us, that these thoughts in their present manifestations 
are but the further development of the same fundamental 
idea, which has prevailed through all geological periods^ 
from the beginning to the end, in intimate connection. 
Animal forms of the same types occur in successive mod- 
ifications through all these periods, and in a progressive 
series we may trace the fishes, followed by reptiles, birds, 
and Mammalia to the appearance of man, in such con- 
nection and such regular gradation as to indicate that 
they all belong to the same fundamental plan, and that, 
whether we view them with reference to their successive 
appearance upon earth, or in the complications of their 
structure, or in the phases of their embryonic growth, 
they represent in every way modifications of the samel 
thoughts. And as surely may we conclude that this plan 
was framed prior to the beginning of creation, and was 
matured in all its parts, before the actual production of 
any special form. 

We are thus gradually led to consider the character of 
God previous to the cieation. For step by step, we have 
gone back to earlier and earlier periods in the general 
plan of the universe. 

Beyond the limits of the existence of organized life we 
find our globe itself destitute of animals and plants ; be- 
yond the period when it had become a fit habitation for 
organized beings, we may trace it in the progress of other 
changes, preparatory to what it was to become at the 
appointed time, — the stage for the display of all this di- 
versity of life. And it is a point not to be lost sight of, 
that there is such an intimate relation between organic 
life and the physical world, — a relation of such a char- 
acter as to leave no doubt that the changes which our 
globe itself has undergone, from the time of its first for- 
mation to the time when life was introduced upon it, had 



8 



Contemplations of God in the Kosmos. [Jan. 



reference to the creation of animals and plants, and were 
a part of the general plan of which the creation of higher 
beings is the crowning development. 

The changes in the inorganic world, therefore, which 
cannot, even in their limited spheres, be ascribed solely 
to the action of those laws which regulate the material 
universe, must be considered as subserving, and intended 
to be subservient, to the development of animals and 
plants, and therefore organic in their general connection. 

How this earth and the other members of our solar 
system, how the other systems of worlds, how the 
universe as a whole, is combined, is a subject for the 
special study of astronomers, and we do not venture to 
enter farther into this field. But from the study of our 
own globe we may already learn that there was a time 
when inorganic beings alone existed ; and, from the inti- 
mate connection between physical and organic phenome- 
na, we may fairly infer, that this material world was cre- 
ated in view of life, and that the changes it has under- 
gone were brought on gradually and successively, as the 
changes which we notice in the succession of organized 
beings, and that these changes have been the results of 
specific interventions on the part of the Creator, as well 
as the appearance of the successive forms of animal and 
vegetable life. 

In the preceding remarks we have expressed the view 
which we would take of organized beings, considering 
them as manifestations of the thoughts of the Creator. 
We have also shown how this view may be applied 
equally well to all finite beings, — to the inorganic as well 
as to the organic world. And as soon as we are prepared 
to view organism as the expression of thought, we are 
also prepared to consider a question of great importance 
in philosophy, — whether the creation was a necessity for 
the Creator. As soon as we recognize in nature a har- 
monious plan pervading all its parts, — as soon as it is 
understood that this plan has been carried out, in the 
course of time, successively towards one definite end, 
developing always the same train of thoughts, — we are 
justified in concluding, that as it is now it has been 
from the beginning, at every following period, the result 
of a free determination of the Creator, unlimited, unre- 
strained in his works, save by his own decisions. And 



1851.] 



God meditating the Creation. 



9 



we may find in this conclusion an additional argument 
in favor of the finite existence of matter. For if matter 
itself, in any condition, had been eternal and coexistent 
with the Creator, to receive only form, definite form, by 
his will, its very existence would have been a limitation 
in the plan of the creation, depending upon the nature of 
that primitive matter. Matter, therefore, must have been 
produced in succession of time, and various substances 
have followed each other in the order of creation; for 
there is geological evidence, also, that the different ma- 
terial elements of which our globe consists cannot have 
existed simultaneously from the beginning. We thus rec- 
ognize God prior to all creation, prior to the existence 
of matter itself, free to create according to his will, — the 
First Cause of all former existences, as well as of all 
present forms of life. 

Starting from this idea, we may now consider the 
Creator framing his plan of the world, devising the 
means of making it a material reality, and, as physi- 
cal science teaches us, developing it in a series of epochs 
through the advancing ages. The consideration of his 
future works by the Creator, his determination respect- 
ing the plan according to which they should be framed, 
the order in which they should succeed each other, the 
means by which they should become realities, may be 
considered as the preliminaries of the creation. 

We have, first, from eternity, God by himself and in 
himself ; next, God meditating upon his creation; then, 
God acting as Creator, upon a plan laid out from the be- 
ginning, lor a definite end, shown in the connection of 
the phenomena observed in nature. We recognize, first, 
the beginning of worlds, kept together by laws regulat- 
ing their movements, indicating successive changes, pre- 
paratory to the objects which shall be in time produced 
upon them. We see these laws subservient to the future 
existence of organized beings, causing the different celes- 
tial bodies, and our earth in particular, to undergo such 
gradual modifications as will make them a fit abode for 
animals and plants. We recognize from the beginning, 
in these modifications, a determination to render this 
earth habitable first by aquatic animals and plants. We 
see the continents lifted up above the oceans, in small 
groups of low islands, to become the residences of the 



10 Contemplations of God in the Kosmos. [Jan. 



first terrestrial plants, of the first air-breathing animals. 
We see, through successive upheavals, the land increase 
and assume the form of small continents, growing larger 
and larger through successive changes, assuming definite 
relations with each other, and finally establishing the 
continents as they are now, to become the home of man, 
with the animals and plants which live with him upon 
earth. 

But we not only recognize this adaptive relation be- 
tween laws regulating the physical world and the suc- 
cessive introduction of organized beings ; we are led to 
acknowledge also the direct introduction of the creative 
power, in the appearance of all the successive organized 
beings which, at different times, have peopled our globe. 
The supposition that a principle of life, self-creative, 
might have produced by gradual changes all this diver- 
sity of animals and plants, will not account for the facts 
which we may study. 

The circumstance, that there is no evidence whatsoever 
of the transformation of one species into another, leads 
to the direct conclusion, that they are, all and every one, 
the product of direct creative acts, independent of each 
other, in as far as they constitute each a world in itself, 
with its own laws, and are related to each other only in 
as far as they form part of the general plan, the connec- 
tion of which is recognized in the organic relations that 
exist between the different types of organized beings. 
But, at the same time, we must acknowledge that these 
relations are not causal relations, — that they do not indi- 
cate a development one from another, — but reveal only 
the ideal relations in the mind of the Creator, which, 
with the intellectual powers we have received from him, 
w 7 e may recognize, as far as our spirit partakes of the 
Divine intelligence, — only in as far as, being made our- 
selves in the image of the Creator, we are thus prepared 
to understand his works, to recognize his will, to bow 
before his law, and to trace his views and objects in the 
creation, being ourselves among the numberless creations 
belonging to that great conception. The creation may 
thus be compared to a drama, the plan of which was 
complete in the mind of its author before the first scene 
was written out ; the actors in which were determined in 
their characters before they appeared on the stage ; the end 



1851.] The Creation of Organized Beings. 



11 



of which is known to him before any witness has been 
allowed to contemplate it; the scenes in the midst of 
which this action is to appear were sketched with ref- 
erence to the future performance, before any of the 
actors were called into being ; and the whole, with all its 
parts, in iheir mutual dependence, had an ideal existence 
with the author before it became a reality. And, as in 
the progress of this great drama new developments were 
brought out, the requisite actors appeared in due time, 
and in such connection with those preceding as to lead 
gradually to the final conclusion, in the creation of our 
globe and its successive stages, down to the present state 
of things. Though such a comparison is far from giving 
an adequate idea of the plan of this world, it will at 
least facilitate our conception of a successive, gradual, 
progressive creation, planned by the Almighty in the be- 
ginning, and maintained in its present state by his provi- 
dential action. 

We now arrive at the investigation of another very 
delicate subject; and though upon this topic we possess 
much fewer data than we could command in examining 
those points which have already attracted our attention, \ 
we mav ask of science to inquire, next, in what state \ 
organized beings have been created. And though, for 
the present, we cannot expect to offer very full informa- 
tion upon this subject, it will not be out of place to con- 
sider what may have been the primitive condition of 
organized beings. And even should our remarks afford 
only suggestions for future inquiry, the subject is too in- 
teresting in itself, and on many accounts too important, 
to remain longer undiscussed among scientific men. 

It we start from the knowledge which we now possess 
of the mode of reproduction and development of ani- 
mal- as they exist, we find that they all arise from 
o 1 that out of these eggs grow new individuals, 

by successive and gradual changes. We know, further- 
more, that these eggs, in their primitive condition, all re- 
semi >ie each other most remarkably, though out of the egg 
of one animal no other kind of animal is ever developed, 
excepl that from which the egg proceeds; so much so, 
that we must acknowledge in the egg of each kind 
specific characters, not distinguishable, indeed, in the 
material constitution of the egg itself, but none the less 



12 Contemplations of God in the Kosmos. [Jan. 



essential to it, as it is not capable of transformation into 
any other species. The principle of specific life with which 
each kind is endowed is the immutable character which 
distinguishes it, though a corresponding distinct organi- 
zation in the egg escapes our means of investigation at 
present. Successively the egg itself undergoes material 
changes, until the germ is formed within it; and this 
germ passes through further successive metamorphoses, 
until the new being assumes gradually the peculiarities 
characteristic of its parent. Some of these eggs undergo 
their transformation after they have been laid. Others 
remain in direct connection with the maternal body until 
they are far advanced in growth ; and the amount and 
the extent of the changes which the new being acquires 
before it is freed from its envelope vary exceedingly 
in the different types throughout the animal kingdom. 
Even the degree of maturity of the egg which is cast 
prior to the formation of the germ varies in different 
families of animals. 

We are moreover satisfied, that the conditions under 
which animals undergo their development are no more 
the same for the different animals, than the degree of de- 
velopment which the egg acquires before it is free from 
the maternal body. This being the case with the re- 
production of all animals, as well as of plants, we are 
justified in supposing that, when first created, organized 
beings were not all called into existence in the same con- 
dition, but were placed under circumstances best suited 
for their preservation and growth. 

We may next ask, whether it is probable that they were 
first created in an adult state, or whether it is not more 
in accordance with the phenomena we observe in their 
reproduction to suppose that even the first specimens of 
each species underwent transformation from eggs. We 
have no doubt, that, as soon as our investigations are 
made with a special reference to the settlement of this 
question, we shall arrive at facts which will teach us 
more respecting it than we know at the present time. 
And the difference which we observe in the reproduction 
of animals now existing seems to indicate that the con- 
dition in which animals were created has not been the 
same for all, and that the state of maturity in which 
they first appeared must have varied in different geologi- 



1851.] 



Creation and Reproduction. 



13 



cal periods, and at the beginning of the present creation, 
with different families of animals. 

We may not only assume that these conditions have 
been different for different families ; it is necessary further 
to conceive these conditions to have been propitious to 
the preservation and reproduction of all created beings, 
to such a degree as to secure their continuance for ages. 
The present condition of animals and plants upon our 
globe shows this most conclusively, inasmuch as all 
animals and plants reproduce their kind in consequence 
of their natural organization, without any indication of 
repeated acts of creation since they were called into ex- 
istence with man. Between creation and reproduction 
a broad distinction is therefore to be made. Animals 
and plants continue to live and multiply, in accordance 
with the law which regulates their existence. All we 
know of the present creation leads to the conclusion, 
that all animals and plants that occur at present upon 
earth were created at about the same time, and have con- 
tinued without interruption ; and that no new animals 
have been added to the number since man has existed. 
We may therefore infer, what indeed is demonstrated by 
geological evidence, that there have been periods of cre- 
ation at distant intervals, during successive geological 
epochs, all the species of animals and plants created at 
each period having lasted for a given time, to be succes- 
sively replaced by others ; just as we see that the ani- 
mals which exist now, and which we are led to consider 
as simultaneous in their appearance, have continued to 
the present day. 

Those periods of creation, however, must differ from 
the periods of reproduction, during which animals and 
plants are simply continued ; inasmuch as living beings 
then receive the peculiarities of each, are then endowed 
with the powers of reproduction, and are then established 
in their mutual relations, which are as various as those 
now existing. This further sustains the opinion already 
expressed, that the conditions in which animals and 
plants were created varied for each kind, as much, at 
least, as those under which they live at present differ, 
and must have varied to the additional extent necessary 
to their first development, independent of a parent's care. 

From the circumstances which are necessary to the 

vol. l. — 4th s. vol. xv. no. i. 2 



14 Contemplations of God in the Kosmos. [Jan. 



preservation of animals at present, we may infer some of 
the conditions under which they were created. Those 
species which are by nature gregarious, which live in 
large communities, in which individuals of different sexes 
exist in unequal numbers, must have been created primi- 
tively with such differences. Those which undergo all 
their changes in water, and live permanently in it, must 
have been created there, — the sea animals in the ocean, 
the fresh-water animals in ponds or rivers. Those which 
require easy access to dry land, after they have under- 
gone their first metamorphoses in water, must have been 
created near the shores. Those which inhabit only the 
main land must have been primitively placed upon it. 
Those which live as parasites upon other animals, and 
can only subsist within the cavities of other living beings, 
must have been created within the bodies of such ani- 
mals, after they had acquired their normal development. 
Those which dwell in the fur or between the feathers of 
Mammalia and birds, must have been placed there from 
the beginning. 

The question here is not whether the Creator could 
not as well have produced all these animals upon one 
spot, to spread thence over the globe, — whether he could 
not as well have created a few, to multiply and spread 
gradually over the earth's surface, — whether he could 
not as well have created them full-grown, perfect in all 
the complication of their structure. Our task is to learn 
from nature what view of creation is most fully in accor- 
dance with the phenomena which we may observe in ani- 
mals as they exist now. In this respect it cannot fail to 
be perceived that, with large numbers of the species, 
even if they had been created few in number, and in 
the full state of maturity, ready to multiply, their ex- 
istence, their preservation, would have been subject to 
so many chances of destruction as hardly to have escaped 
total annihilation. This is particularly the case with all 
those animals which serve as food to others, and which 
at the same time produce normally but few young at a 
time, and at distant intervals ; for instance, most of the 
ruminants, which are constantly pursued by the large 
carnivorous animals, and the greater number of birds, es- 
pecially of the smaller kinds, which fall an easy prey 
to a variety of larger animals. Even the circumstance, 



1851.] 



Distribution after Creation. 



15 



that most animals bring forth at each birth large num- 
bers of young, seems to indicate that, at the time of their 
creation, there must also have been many of the same 
kind called simultaneously into existence. The fact, that 
there are animals which bring forth thousands of eggs, 
would naturally lead to the inference that they did not 
originate in single pairs. And, if we further take into 
consideration the circumstance, that the different kinds of 
animals and plants exist in harmonious numerical pro- 
portions upon the earth, we are irresistibly led to the 
conclusion, that the number of representatives of differ- 
ent kinds must have been different from the beginning of 
the creation. For it does not seem that in nature, in 
their wild state, animals increase or change in their re- 
spective proportions, nor does this seem to be the case, 
to any extent, with the colored races of men, but that 
only the Mongolians, and especially the white race in 
their civilized condition, are capable, through artificial 
means, of increasing largely and rapidly in number. 

There has never been a crowded population of Indians 
on the continent of America, excepting during the tem- 
porary Aztec civilization ; and neither in Africa nor New 
Holland have there been facts observed, leading to the 
supposition that those races, at any time, have gathered 
in large, crowded communities. 

The mutual dependence of the animal and vegetable 
kingdoms, and their relation to the state of our atmos- 
phere, art- other facts which would rather sustain the opin- 
ion, that animals and plants, when created, were called 
into existence in such harmonious proportions as their 
action upon each other, and their dependence upon each 
other, require. And all the facts respecting the geographi- 
cal distribution of both animals and plants, their spe- 
cial location, in accordance with the peculiar physical fea- 
tures of the surface of our globe, and the preservation of 
their natural limits of distribution through all ages since 
man has preserved records of the phenomena which he 
witnesses, further justify such general inferences, which 
the few cases of domesticated animals and cultivated 
plants that have been spread by the agency of man 
over wider areas than they primitively occupied, will 
hardly invalidate. 

Our next step would require an investigation into the 



16 Contemplations of God in the Kosmos. [Jan. 



real degree of maturity and perfection in which animals 
and plants were created. Here, again, it seems more in 
accordance with the law under which we see them prop- 
agated, to admit that they originated as eggs, endowed 
with all the germs of that development which is peculiar 
to each species ; that they grew successively to their 
normal state ; and that, sowed in large numbers over 
districts which they were to occupy, they established from 
the beginning that harmony which still prevails. We 
are at least justified in adopting such a conclusion for all 
those animals which are developed from eggs in water, 
and may therefore assume, that the protecting influences 
under which they passed through their metamorphoses 
agreed with the conditions under which they now propa- 
gate, thus acknowledging a mode of creation which is 
far more in accordance with the laws that now prevail 
in nature than any other supposition ; granting, of course, 
that for each species the circumstances must have varied 
then, as they vary now, respecting the character of the 
egg, as well as the time required for its natural develop- 
ment. Is it not much more in harmony with the laws 
of nature to admit that the Creator, in the beginning, 
sowed the seeds of animals and plants in large numbers 
all over the fields they were to occupy, in the same pro- 
portions as we see them now dropped from the stock 
from which they originate in the normal process of repro- 
duction ? Such views agree too well with the present 
state of our knowledge of animal and vegetaole life, and 
the means by which it is maintained, not to appear natu- 
ral ; and, though we may fail now to extend them to ter- 
restrial animals which are nursed within the maternal 
body, we must contend that they account fully for that 
class of animals which are normally developed in water, 
and for the whole vegetable kingdom. And it may be 
that, in the course of time, we shall acquire sufficient in- 
sight into the development of terrestrial animals to in- 
clude them in the same category, though at present their 
eggs are nursed, without exception, by their parents. But 
may it not be admitted, that, since we have but recently 
ascertained the identity of the development of all animals 
from eggs, and we see already the possibility of the larger 
proportion of them having arisen from eggs, we may also 
discover the way in which the eggs of higher animals, 



1851.] 



The Celestial Bodies. 



17 



even, may be reared, for the first time, without a parent, 
as it is rather against the uniform processes of nature to 
admit different modes of creation, though we must rec- 
ognize the different circumstances under which it took 
place ? 

The fact, that the structure of all animals and plants 
consists of cells, which undergo various modifications in 
their growth, and which in themselves agree so com- 
pletely with the structure of the primitive egg, is another 
circumstance in favor of the view that all animals orig- 
inated primitively from eggs, and grew up, through 
successive generations of cells, to assume, under the in- 
fluence of the law peculiar to each kind, that structure 
which characterizes them when full-grown. In this con- 
nection we should not overlook the indications respecting 
the origin of living beings which we may derive from 
tradition, and from the religious and popular doctrines of 
the oldest nations, who, being from their antiquity so 
much nearer to the creation than we are ourselves, may 
have entertained more correct views respecting the first 
creation than we can at present derive from investiga- 
tion. Even the mythology of the most ancient nations 
should be consulted, and may also prove instructive in 
this respect. 

As for the celestial bodies, we know that they were 
not created in the state in which they now appear. 
Geology has placed it beyond a question, that our globe, 
at least, had undergone many important changes in its 
physical constitution prior to the appearance of organ- 
ized beings, and that it had an organic growth prepara- 
tory to their introduction. The fact, that this earth has 
passed through phases similar to the present physical 
character of other planets, shows plainly that it has had 
a youth, a growth, and an age of maturity ; so that its 
formation may also be considered as furnishing evidence 
that all created beings began in an embryonic state, and 
were gradually developed to their mature condition. 

L. A. 



2* 



18 Massachusetts Academies and High Schools. [Jan. 



Art. II. — THE ACADEMIES AND PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS 
OF MASSACHUSETTS.* 

The friends of education are ready to acknowledge, 
that very considerable differences of opinion exist be- 
tween them as to the value of the free-school system, 
and the extent to which it would be wise to carry it. 
We do not know, indeed, that many amongst us are 
opposed to this system altogether ; on the contrary, we 
arc inclined to believe that such opposition is confined to 
those who, from a conviction that theology should be 
taught in the week-day school, prefer the parochial sys- 
tem, as the only method by which their object can be 
reached. But leaving these few objectors out of the 
question, there are those who would send all the children 
in the Commonwealth to the public school, and provide 
for them the best elementary education at the public 
co c I ; and, on the other hand, there are those who would 
in various ways contract this provision and expenditure, 
and look to private enterprise for the supply of the best 
instruction. We find friends of public schools and 
friends of private schools, and both classes claim to be 
equally interested in the end, though divided about the 
ways and means. A difference of \sentiment as to this 
point was plainly developed in the discussions of the 
American Institute of Education, during its last annual 
meeting, especially in the remarks of some of the mem- 
bers of this body from the State of New York, where, 
whilst we are writing, the question of free schools is 
going before the people for their decision. 

We shall have occasion, in the sequel, to offer a few 
considerations upon this subject. For the present, we 
wish only to say, that, in all the earlier stages of the edu- 
cational enterprise, there is no lack either of room or of 
tasks for all sorts of laborers, and that there can hardly be 
occasion for any conflict between the teachers of public 
and of private schools. These two classes of schools, for 
the time being, at least, help, and do not hinder, each 

* 1. WiUiston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass. Ninth Annual Catalogue. 
August, 1850. 

2. Constitution of WiUiston Seminary at Easthampton, Mass. 1845. 

3. Catalogue of the Trustees, Instructors, and Students of Lawrence Acad- 
emy, Groton, Mass. 1849. 



1851.] 



Public High Schools. 



19 



other. The community is not yet sufficiently alive to the 
importance of education, or well enough instructed as to 
the best ways and means of securing what is desirable, 
to provide, at the public cost, schools, which, by complete- 
ly accomplishing all that is needed in this respect, would 
make private institutions unnecessary. Even where 
ample public provision is made, there are many parents 
who, for various reasons, the soundness of which need 
not here be discussed, are unwilling to avail themselves 
of it. Ail that is done to elevate and improve the com- 
mon school increases the demand for what is far more 
elevated, comprehensive, and exact. The child whose 
mind has been quickened and partially cultivated in a 
primary school will not be satisfied with his slender 
repast ; he will look for some more advanced institution, 
where he can be aided to acquire the elements of scien- 
tific and classical learning. But in very many towns 
the expense of a Public High School could not well be 
sustained, and in many others this expense would ex- 
ceed the liberality, if not the means, of the inhabitants ; 
so that, after the primary school has done its utmost, the 
academy or private school of the higher class must be 
resorted to by the few who can afford the necessary 
outlay. Only about thirty towns in Massachusetts are 
so populous as to come within the statute which requires, 
under certain circumstances, the establishment and sup- 
port of a Public Grammar School, according to the old 
meaning of the phrase, that is, a school in which the 
classics and the mathematics are taught. Besides, where 
private and public schools are found together, a gener- 
ous and profitable rivalry may spring up, whilst the 
benefit secured by a few from private instruction will 
continually prompt the inquiry, Is there not some way 
in which this great blessing may be extended to all who 
are capable of receiving it, — to the gifted children of the 
poor, as well as to those whom Providence has favored ? 
Out of this inquiry will spring Public High Schools of 
a superior description, the pride of the people, to be the 
rivals of our old academies and the like, — to carry on a 
noble strife for preeminence, in which the better is sure 
at hist to prevail. 

This is no mere theory. Where common schools 
abound, academies and private schools abound. "We have 



20 Massachusetts Academies and High Schools. [Jan. 



not at hand the educational statistics of our sister States, 
but we find a great deal which goes to confirm this 
statement in the Educational Returns for Massachusetts. 
By reference to the thirty-seventh page of the tables for 
the year 1849, we find that in the year 1848-49 there 
was raised by " tax, for the support of schools, including 
only the wages of teachers, board, and fuel," the sum of 
$ 830,577.33, and that, in addition to this amount, board 
and fuel were contributed for the same object, to the 
value of $ 35,281.64, making in the whole the sum of 
$ 865,858.97. Now, looking a little farther along, on the 
same page, we find that there are within the limits of the 
State sixty-four incorporated academies, and that during 
the year above named the unincorporated academies, 
private schools, and schools kept to prolong common 
schools, numbered one thousand and forty-seven. More- 
over, from students in the incorporated academies, tui- 
tion-fees were collected during this period to the amount 
of § 61,694.97, and for all other academies and private 
schools the aggregate receipts during the same time are 
given as $ 240,780.79, making in the whole the sum of 
§ 302,475.76, paid in the course of twelve months, for 
private instruction, within the limits of a State whose 
public schools are at least inferior to none in the Union, 
whether as to number or quality. We ought to add, 
that all this is over and above, on the one hand, the 
interest upon the value of public school buildings, local 
funds, and surplus revenue appropriated to common 
schools, and, on the other hand, the corporate property of 
the academies. Of course there is much private tuition, 
the statistics and expense of which are wholly unknown 
to the public* Further, by a comparison of these tables 
with those of 1846, we find that, whilst there has been, 
since that year, an advance of $ 216,000 in the public 
appropriation, the amount expended at private schools 
and academies has also advanced, though not in the 



* The above calculations are based upon the whole number of pupils for 
the year, as given in the catalogues of the academies. We learn, how- 
ever, that the scholars are continually changing, so that not more than half 
of this whole number are connected with a school at any one time. Fifty 
per cent., then, should be deducted from the amount of tuition-fees. Of 
course, these short terms of residence are serious obstacles to the improve- 
ment of the pupils, and we are glad to know that the number of those who 
join the schools for a year or more is steadily increasing. 



1851.] 



Number of Institutions. 



21 



same proportion, the excess being $ 24,781, an increase 
of about one third in the former, and of one eleventh 
in the latter case. The state of education in England 
abundantly shows that private munificence and indi- 
vidual enterprise require the stimulus of public interest 
and effort. The conflict between the dominant Episco- 
pal sect and the Dissenters, so called, and the jealousies 
between different classes, as well as the distrust of edu- 
cation which still prevails amongst the more conserva- 
tive, prevent as yet the establishment of any common 
school system, but we do not find that the work of 
instruction is done in other ways, or that the portion of 
the enormous wealth of the country which should be 
devoted to this great cause is expended in the endow- 
ment of any considerable number of high schools and 
academies. Of the four millions of English and Welsh 
children, two millions attend no school whatever. 

"We do not care to deny that our sympathies are 
mainly given to our noble Free School System, the pride 
of our Commonwealth. This is and is to be our strong- 
hold. The confidence and favor with which it is now 
regarded are, we believe, sure to increase. But, as we 
have seen, there is a place still for other means and 
instruments, and the interest which we feel in the great- 
er protects us from all indifference towards the less. 
And it is a fact worth dwelling upon, that a very large 
part of the best education in New England has been 
given through incorporated and endowed academies. 
Without some acquaintance with their constitution and 
operations, and the relations which they sustain to the 
common school system, we can have no, adequate knowl- 
edge of the means and methods of instruction that 
already exist here, and must be unprepared to make a 
suitable provision for future exigencies. A few pages 
devoted to this subject may not be without value and 
interest for those who have the cause of education at 
heart. We must limit ourselves to the incorporated 
academies of Massachusetts, but what will be said of 
these will apply, with very slight modifications, to New 
England academies in general. 

The school tables for the past year, as has already 
been stated, give the number of these institutions as 
sixty-four; but of this number only a few are schools 



22 Massachusetts Academies and High Schools. [Jan. 

of any importance. In many cases, they amount to 
little more than good high schools for the towns where 
they are situated. But the few of a superior order are, 
it must be remembered, included within the limits of a 
single State, and some of them can boast of many years 
of true maturity and fame, and all of them are fresh, 
vigorous, and increasing in their usefulness. Phillips, 
Duminer, Leicester, Derby, Hopkins, amongst the elder, 
Lawrence, South Hadley, Williston, and some other 
names not so euphonious, amongst the younger, are fa- 
miliar to us in this connection. These academies are 
doing a vast deal to raise the standard of education 
throughout our land. Their influence extends to our re- 
motest west and. our farthest south. Many of them are 
furnished with considerable pecuniary means, and excel- 
lent appliances of all sorts for their work, and many an 
arduous post of instruction is faithfully and laboriously 
filled. 

It is not easy to present any thing like a full account 
of our incorporated academies. Such an account should 
embrace a statement of the time and circumstances of 
their foundation, the amount of their funds, the number 
of teachers, as well as of pupils, the average attendance 
of the scholars, the expense of tuition, the objects to 
which they are specially devoted, the peculiar type of 
Christianity to which they are consecrated, and the 
moral and intellectual principles upon which they are 
conducted. Some of this information can be obtained, 
in aggregates, from our School Tables, and the particu- 
lars of which these aggregates are made up might be 
learned from the returns that are annually made from 
the various towns to the Secretary of the Board of Edu- 
cation. We find that for the year 1848-49 the aver- 
age number of pupils was sixty-two, the average length 
of the annual term-time nine months and twenty-two 
days, and the average amount paid for tuition at each 
academy one thousand dollars. It should be observed, 
that two academies out of the sixty-four, not having 
any returns set over against them, are not regarded 
in these averages. We believe that during the year 
specified above they were not in operation. The histo- 
ries of towns and counties, and other historical collec- 
tions, with the catalogues of the academies, when they 



1851.] 



Statistics of Academies. 



23 



are of sufficient importance to have any, furnish addi- 
tional items of information. We will endeavour to set 
down a few facts that have come within our reach. 

The academies of our Commonwealth are of every 
grade of excellence, from inferior grammar schools to 
the best English and classical high schools. In the 
majority of cases, as we have already intimated, they 
do not attract any considerable number of scholars from 
a distance, but are useful in supplying at a small charge 
the means of instruction to the older pupils of the town 
which enjoys the foundation. The fund in some cases 
is limited to the proceeds from the sale of the Maine 
land, which it was customary to grant to academies. 
In other cases, individual liberality has supplied bequests 
or donations, to a very considerable amount. Phillips 
and Lawrence Academies have property, each of them, 
which may be set down at $ 50,000, whilst the sum of 
$ 55,000 has been given by the individual to whose 
munificence we are indebted for Williston Seminary, and 
constitutes the fund of that institution. Dummer Acad- 
emy, in Newbury, is the oldest institution of the kind in 
the State. It was founded in 1756, but not incorporated 
until 1782, two years after a charter had been granted to 
Phillips Academy. We believe that" this ancient school 
has not always kept up with the progress of education, 
but within a few years measures have been taken, we 
hope successfully, to revive its life and increase its use- 
fulness. Phillips and Leicester Academies have always 
occupied very high places; the former for threescore and 
ten, the latter for threescore and six years, have furnished 
our colleges with pupils, our schools with teachers, and 
many departments of business with well-trained young 
men. The classical instruction given at these schools, 
and we may add at the Williston Seminary, is of a very 
high order, — far beyond the best college instruction of 
the last century, as any one may see, by comparing the 
account of the course at Cambridge between the years 
1794 and 1 798, given, in a letter from Judge Story, on 
the forty-fifth page of the first volume of the Memoir of 
Dr. Channing, with the course of either of these acade- 
mies. We name the above institutions only because they 
happen to be known to us ; that there are others deserv- 
ing the same commendation, we have no doubt. 



24 Massachusetts Academies and High Schools. [Jan. 



The Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, at South Had- 
ley, is a somewhat novel and very interesting institution. 
It proposes to furnish the best female education at a 
very moderate rate, and, by requiring all the pupils to 
reside within the establishment, it seeks to unite the 
school with the family more completely than is possible 
in ordinary circumstances. Moreover, the building is so 
constructed, and the arrangements of the family are 
such, as to render it convenient and desirable for the 
scholars to perform domestic service, and reduce by so 
doing the expenses of the institution, whilst they benefit 
their health and enlarge their experience; — altogether 
an admirable plan, a truly regenerated boarding-school! 
Sixteen is the lowest age at which any are admitted, 
and seventeen or eighteen is preferred. The candidate 
must have a good elementary knowledge of English and 
Latin, and will then be enabled to complete the course 
of academical studies in three years. In the year 1848- 
49 two hundred and twenty-one pupils were educated at 
iliis admirable school, at an expense to each of $60 per 
annum, exclusive of fuel and oil. The Seminary owes 
its existence and great prosperity to the efforts of our 
Orthodox brethren, and is of course under their imme- 
diate direction and influence. \ 

A somewhat detailed account of the cost of education 
at two of our principal academies may be interesting to 
our readers. We have selected for this purpose the 
Lawrence Academy, at Groton, and the Williston Semi- 
nary, at Easthampton. The former of these, founded in 
1793, was known as Groton Academy until 1846-47, 
when the present name was given to it by our Legis- 
lature,' as we need hardly add, in acknowledgment of 
the distinguished liberality of Messrs. William and Amos 
Lawrence, of Boston. The charge for tuition, per annum, 
in English, Latin, and Greek, is twelve dollars, or three 
dollars a term; modern languages, drawing, and music 
are taught for a moderate additional charge. The price 
of board, &c, for forty-two weeks of term-time, ranges 
from eighty-four to one hundred and five dollars for each 
student. We may add, that two scholars must graduate 
at this academy, each year, who receive back sevenfold 
all that they have paid in tuition-fees, inasmuch as there 
are eight scholarships, four at Bowdoin and four at 



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